This post was intended for Social Media intermediates looking to increase their understanding of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Thanks to the MLS-Office team for aiding in this research!

After attending some webinars on Klout, we were turned onto Empire Avenue , a similar tool that claims to evaluate your “social stock”. Both are built around social review, and aim to help all industries focus on the rising importance of engagement over follower counts. Here is our comparative analysis for business professionals.

Klout

Klout gives you an influence rating of 1 – 100, 20 being your average Twitter business user and 100 being Justin Bieber. The voting function of Klout is a +K. Users will give you +K’s on topics to show you they feel influenced by you.

Pros

Klout feels very ancillary to other social media efforts. The time you spend on Klout.com is actually very small, so integrating it into your already established plan is simple.

Klout helps you comb the very best of the best of your followers out, so that you can praise them and really make that solid connection. The people we exchange +K’s with continue to escalate their engagement.

Giving is receiving on Klout. Not one +K yet, out of maybe 50, was spent that didn’t at least receive an ecstatic thank you.

Cons

Klout often suggests you post your Klout activities, especially on Twitter. Beware! Up until the point we decided to adopt Klout we were filtering klout users OUT of the feeds. Many out there are not on Klout and spending too many social opportunities on reporting your +K’s is more likely to alienate parts of your audience if anything.

Empire Avenue

Empire Avenue, or EAV for short, simulates a stock market experience to help you understand your social influence. You are thrust into an open sandbox with a starting amount of currency, Eaves or (e), with the instruction to begin building your portfolio. Essentially your online interactions generate more Eaves so you can invest more in other users and attract them to your network.

Pros

EAV is amazing at one thing, finding new minds to connect with your online profiles. The sandbox approach on EAV means highly analytical people will pluck you into their portfolio if they see your value is on the rise, and then they will start to connect with you on your other platforms like Linkedin. This might be an effective tool to promote new accounts and diversify your established professional accounts.

Niche for the financial market. Prove you have social influence AND financial knowledge on all the same platform.

Cons

Stigma as a game, not a professional tool. Briefly, gamification employs theories that the same mechanics that essentially make online games so addictive, can be implemented into work scenarios to increase efficiency. When looking at Klout next to EAV it is obvious that EAV is a game, and Klout is a social measuring tool if only to mind semantics, perception and how that plays into adoption.

It can be easy to loose site of your goals on EAV. There is just so much to track that it eats up time. This can swing to be a pro in your favor if you can maximize your time. If you work to help other newcomers understand the platform you will grow connections even faster. Also, There is no better investment than buying low on a newcomer and personally grooming them into value to help your own portfolio.

All the ambiguity and insecurity of the stock market comes too, even with the knowledge these markets will never tank or bite you. After my third day I was stressed out by EAV to the point I had to enforce a 12 hour digital break (and I almost made it through!)

Give Klout a try. It has legitimacy and is relatively easy. If you can’t find value on klout I seriously doubt empire avenue will be good for you. But if you are the type who played online poker to pay through college or if you are the type who sees a system and has to poke ever nook and cranny of it, empire avenue was made for you.